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That sex sells is nothing new. That sexy images and ideas are being bought and marketed to younger and younger people is disturbing. Corporations have recognized the buying potential of today’s hottest target market: Tweens. Defined as 8 to 12-year-olds, tweens are not quite teens and no longer little children. But let us not forget, they are still children.

Today’s tweens are technologically savvy and avid consumers of media.

Messages come at them from all angles, from TV and movies, from music and the Internet. Girls, in particular, are bombarded with pressure to look and be sexy long before their minds or bodies are ready for it.

The holiday shopping season is not just a time filled with big discounts and doorbusters. It’s also a time when criminals know there’s going to be more people out shopping and more “stuff” inside cars in store parking lots.

It’s worth brushing up on a few safety tips. The first is to make your vehicle as unattractive to a crook as you can. Chances are you’ve heard it said, “Don’t leave valuables in your car.” Eugene Police Sgt. Lisa Barrong says that doesn’t work anymore. “We need to take the word ‘valuable’ out of that sentence. Don’t leave ANYTHING visible inside your car. It doesn’t matter if it seems like something worthless to you,” she says. “To the criminal, it may not be worthless.”

This article was first featured at Oregon Faith Report and was humored enough to re-post it here.

Kohl’s Black Friday Ad quite shameless, tasteless
By Guest Opinion,

There is a lot to love and loathe about America’ shopping obsession on Black Friday. Kohl’s 2011 Black Friday Ad wallows in all the negative stereotypes, possibly as a parody or button pushing to gin up more sales. Nonetheless, the race to the bottom to save the bottom line can sometimes bottom-out on merit.

On You Tube the home video featuring two boys going crazy with a bag of flour while mom was away has made it among the most popular list. The Today shows the video with some narration to give you the full story and answer the questions you are asking once you witness the disaster. The video will make you paranoid to ever leave your kids alone.

Have you noticed that Thanksgiving side dishes like potatoes, stuffing, and pie can sometimes steal the show? I’m going to ask that we pay a little more attention to the turkey. Let’s be thankful for turkeys and their role in helping Americans give thanks for hundreds of years.

“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. In the past, whenever I had fallen short in almost any undertaking, it was seldom because I had tried and failed. It was because I had let fear of failure stop me from trying at all.”

-Arthur Gordon

There are many things in life that can be attempted half-heartedly: picking up the house, having a conversation with a stranger, watching television, ironing, raking leaves, painting a closet that no one will ever see inside – you get the idea. And because we are all aware that it is possible to get by in life by just doing enough instead of investing our full abilities, sometimes this shortened route to completion can be tempting.

Several years ago I was getting the gas tank filled as I was on the way to my parent’s place for Thanksgiving. The attendant, making casual conversation, asked me, “Are you cooking or driving?,” a cute way of asking was I having people over for dinner or was I going somewhere for dinner.

A sign of the times. We are hopelessly addicted and connected to our electronic devices, much to the slight of our family and friends. This viral video shows a bride and groom getting married with the wife taking a text message during her wedding vows. Maybe it was an emergency? Anyways, below is the video to make you roll your eyes at society.